Heal Me Now
by porcelaindakota
Summary: It's a fitting denouement. 37 sentences concerning Ty Lee and Haru


45: Eclipse. Once the invasion ends, Ty Lee begins attending interrogations with Mai and Azula, and unwittingly is present for the questioning of her future father-in-law: he wears the same expression of anguish and defeat and defiance as the rest of his fellow prisoners, but Ty Lee cannot help but feel a horrible twinge of pity and sadness that had been entirely absent before.

28: Forgotten. When she first sees the muscular new addition to the Avatar's group, Ty Lee instantly forgets the blue-eyed boomerang boy, and instead imagines the tickle of an Earth Kingdom mustache against her lips.

48: Unknown. "Well," Ty Lee chirps happily, "I guess we've got time to get to know each other now," while Haru lies motionless at her feet, his _qi _quite effectively blocked.

49: Lock. "Don't try to pretend we're anything alike," the earthbender boy declares the first time Ty Lee can get him alone, away from the Avatar's group: "Your country destroyed mine; my father is locked away in _your _prisons"—and Ty Lee is left speechless at the way something contrived so innocently could turn so very, very… otherwise.

26: Ice. "Leave me alone," he said, still laying at her feet with his eyes shut: "And tell your country to do the same."

24: Strength. After that first encounter in the bushes, they don't meet again until the night before the last battle; Haru was sitting with Sokka and Zuko around the campfire, Zuko trailing his finger over a drawing of the palace—when Ty Lee clambered through the trees and dropped to her knees, begged them to let her come too, even when only two of them could look her in the eye.

09: Red. Their first moment of civility (real civility, anyway) came during the ball celebrating the peace treaty—Haru looked across the room and there she was, wearing some kind of red silk dress: her eyes met his and there it was, instantly, a spark he didn't understand.

15: Silk. "I'm angry," he confessed, and with a rustling of silk, a slender, pale hand came to rest on his shoulder, strangely effective comfort from a girl he hardly knew.

36: Laugh. Other boys (other _men_) notice Ty Lee because of her body—but Haru sees past her looks and hears her laugh, and it is _that _which makes all the difference, that makes the pretty acrobat notice him in return.

23: Fire. Once he gets to know the twirling pink acrobat, Haru can never quite get over the idea of her past friendship with the Fire Nation princess who would so readily raze homes and conquer cities: "I suppose," Ty Lee admits, "She was my blind spot."

41: Wait. "Wait!" Ty Lee cries, and Haru is only halfway turned when a soft, lily-scented something collides with him and presses him into the wall: "Don't leave yet!" she says, her face only inches from Haru's, the stone pressing into his back and her body pressing into his front.

29: Dance. Their first dance is a wonder, a fascination: they are moving in time to the music of a Fire Nation festival, and Ty Lee cannot stop her hands from roaming over Haru… his chest, his shoulders, his arms, his defined chin, all marvelous new discoveries.

40: Whisper. "Don't you want to kiss me?" Ty Lee whispers, in a wonderful terrible sultry voice that makes Haru's lips tremble and his hands jerk to the hem of her shirt.

13: View. This is how Ty Lee likes to spend her days at the beach—stretched out on a fluffy pink towel, watching a certain green-eyed, _shirtless _bather practice bending the sand.

05: Run. "I'm sick of this place," Ty Lee says, her head bowed as they stare out over the ruin of the Fire Nation capital—and when she raises her face, when she whispers "I want to go with you," Haru can see hot, frustrated tears sparkling on her cheeks, glittering under the half-moon (it's beautiful and haunting, all at the same time).

04: Box. It's handcarved from rosewood, the inside lined with plush wine velvet, a gift from her grandmother, the only reminder of home Ty Lee takes when she leaves the Fire Nation.

22: Journey. She packs her things and meets him at the capital's docks; he's got their tickets in one hand and his father's arm in the other, and somehow, in spite of the way their boat lilts to one side in the water and smells of salt, it's a fitting denouement.

06: Hurricane. "What, haven't you ever been in one of these?" Ty Lee shouts over the roaring wind (Haru is clutching at the ship's mast as if his life depends on it), before throwing her head back towards the sky, sticking out her tongue to catch the raindrops… because really, what's a hurricane but the sky having a temper tantrum?

42: Talk. When they camp together outside, under the quiet of the stars, Ty Lee tells him about growing up with six identical sisters, and Haru squeezes her hand; he describes flying away as his father was led to an enemy prison, and Ty Lee wraps her arms around his chest and lets him hold her there tight.

47: Highway. "The roads aren't this dusty in the Fire Nation," Ty Lee pouts; Haru says nothing, but the flirty look he shoots her from over his shoulder is enough—_stop whining, you baby. _

10: Drink. Ty Lee can barely hear Haru's grumbling and admonishing as he half-carries her back from the local tavern; she is too focused on the way her skin is buzzing, the way she can still taste the sake, hot and dizzy on her tongue, and the sultry sheen the alcohol seems to give to her tan, muscular, tantalizingly stern boyfriend.

46: Gravity. It's a phenomenon Ty Lee has never experienced before—the way that inside her tiny Earth Kingdom home, she is buoyant, lighter than air—and then the way that outside, the hostile, penetrating stares (_look, Fire Nation_) seem to push her back down into the mud, to force the air from her lungs.

01: Ring. "In the Earth Kingdom we make betrothal bracelets," Haru says, clasping the delicate handmade chain gently around her wrist; "It's beautiful," she replies, pulling his hand to her lips and kissing the soft part of his palm.

34: Formal. "I'm a farmer's son," Haru says, holding up a deep green sash: "I have no idea how to wear this."

30: Body. Despite a lifetime of being perfect and tiny and acrobatic, Ty Lee had fully anticipated the not-so-nice effects of pregnancy, and consequently wasn't surprised at her aching feet, food cravings, sore breasts, and swollen belly; what did surprise her, however, was her husband's reaction to her changing body—namely, his tendency to pull her into broom closets and their bedroom any time the opportunity presented itself.

27: Fall. It is the one season that seems shared between Ty Lee's home in the Fire Nation and Haru's in the Earth Kingdom, and for perhaps that reason, it is _their _season: the season they are married, the season their children are born… _theirs. _

02: Hero. "Daddy, daddy, do it again!" cries their tiny son, and Haru smiles and complies—and a tiny, fist-sized glob of mud flies across the yard to land on mama's head.

37: Lies. "Dad, I'm gonna go play at Yong's house," Li says, but it isn't the truth and Ty Lee and Haru can't find their tiny son and everything is panic and fear and then Ty Lee sees a slide of rocks against the riverbank and her heart leaps into her throat (_I wanna bend like daddy, _she remembers him saying).

38: Forever (after 37). It's hard, _so hard, _Ty Lee thinks, for a mother to hold onto those promises of the spirit world and a happy, painless afterlife, when all she can she is how tiny her baby boy is as he's lowered into the ground.

39: Overwhelmed (after 38). The night their four-year-old son is buried, Ty Lee finds Haru kneeled in a cave behind their home, his face buried in his hands: and no matter how many times Ty Lee whispers to him, kisses his brow and caresses him and _cries _with him, she can not stop his wailing, the horrible howling that comes from his raw throat and threatens to drown them both in their shared grief.

32: Farewells. "We have to say goodbye," Ty Lee whispered, "or else we're going to be buried, too."

31: Sacred. "I think we need to have another baby," Haru said, pulling Ty Lee to lie beneath him, resting his hand on the skin of her ribcage: "We need to make another baby," he moaned, his breath hot and wanting on her neck.

07: Wings. Their names are Bao and Lei, a boy and a girl, and they lift the choking sorrow out of their hearts like some sort of healing magic.

33: World. After Bao and Lei comes little Tyro, and for a while their tiny stone home becomes the entire world, a separate kingdom smelling of the milk and powder of their children's skin.

19: Candle. "Guess what, guess what!" Lei chirps to the milkman just a few short years later: "Mama's turning 30 _again!_"

44: Hope. "I feel bad for her, having such a strange name," Haru says quietly (but not quietly enough; the dark-haired girl looks back with a look of outrage on her face): "You're so _mean_!" Ty Lee hisses back, punching him in the arm.

50: Breathe. "It's amazing," he breathes into her hair, "how they could ever say this wasn't meant to be."

* * *

Well, I never exactly finished this theme set, so it may feel a little unfinished. But I think I just eventually decided it was done, you know? Anyway, I hope you like.

-sugarland


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